Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 3, 2025
10:26
Author Spotlight: A Cost-Effective Genomic Workflow for Advancing Rabies Control in Resource-Limited Settings
Published on: August 18, 2023
5.2K
Status check: next-generation sequencing for infectious-disease diagnostics.
Kyle G Rodino1, Patricia J Simner2
1Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
The Journal of Clinical Investigation
|February 15, 2024
Summary
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) offers powerful tools for diagnosing infectious diseases. Three main NGS approaches show promise, though challenges remain for widespread clinical adoption.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Genomics
- Infectious Disease Diagnostics
Background:
- Traditional methods for infectious disease diagnosis have limitations.
- Next-generation sequencing (NGS) presents advanced diagnostic capabilities.
- NGS applications are emerging for pathogen identification and characterization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the distinct approaches of NGS in infectious disease diagnostics.
- To highlight the advantages of NGS over conventional diagnostic techniques.
- To identify existing challenges hindering the clinical implementation of NGS.
Main Methods:
- Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) for comprehensive genomic analysis.
- Targeted NGS (tNGS) for focused sequence analysis of specific genes or regions.
- Metagenomic NGS (mNGS), or clinical metagenomics, for unbiased detection of microbial communities.
Main Results:
- NGS approaches provide high sensitivity and specificity in pathogen detection.
- WGS enables detailed strain typing and outbreak investigations.
- tNGS and mNGS offer flexibility for different diagnostic scenarios.
Conclusions:
- NGS technologies, including WGS, tNGS, and mNGS, hold significant potential for revolutionizing infectious disease diagnostics.
- These advanced sequencing methods offer advantages in speed, accuracy, and breadth of detection compared to traditional methods.
- Overcoming current challenges is crucial for the broader clinical integration of NGS in infectious disease management.
Related Concept Videos
03:00Next-generation Sequencing
88.8K
The first human genome sequencing project cost $2.7 billion and was declared complete in 2003, after 15 years of international cooperation and collaboration between several research teams and funding agencies. Today, with the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies, the cost and time of sequencing a human genome have dropped over 100 fold.
Next-Generation Sequencing Methods
Although all next-generation methods use different technologies, they all share a set of standard features....
Next-Generation Sequencing Methods
Although all next-generation methods use different technologies, they all share a set of standard features....
88.8K
01:57Sanger Sequencing
754.3K
DNA sequencing is a fundamental technique that is routinely used in the biological sciences. This method can be applied to a range of questions at different scales - from the sequencing of a cloned DNA fragment or the study of a mutation in a gene up to whole-genome sequencing. However, despite the widespread use of sequencing today, it was not until 1977 that Fredrick Sanger and his collaborators developed the chain-termination method to decode DNA sequences. It relies on the separation of a...
754.3K